The Ministry of Power has released an order which provides extension on the waiver of intra-state transmission charges and losses for transmission of electricity generated from solar and wind sources. As per the last order dated 14 June 2017, MoP had provided an extension on the waiver of transmission charges for electricity procured from solar and wind sources till 31.12.2019. This waiver has been further extended to 31 March 2022 for electricity transmitted both the sources of renewable energy.

The waiver shall be applicable for 25 years from the date of commissioning of the projects and only on those projects entering into PPAs with distribution licensees for sale of electricity for compliance of their RPO. The order also states that the waiver shall be applicable to projects awarded through competitive bidding process.

This order continues to encompass the same issues present in the previous orders. It is only applicable to solar projects from which the electricity will be sold to the DISCOMs. Secondly, it will only be on those solar projects entering PPAs for the compliance of RPO.

This is an attempt to encourage solar and wind energy in the country, the Ministry of Power (MoP) had waived off the inter-state transmission charges and losses on the electricity generated by wind and solar sources of energy in September last year. That order has now been amended by the MoP and as per the new order, transmission charges and losses are wavered off only on solar projects. The MoP, after consultation with MNRE, CEA, CERC and POSOCO, has notified the following:

For generation projects based on solar resources, the waiver will be on projects commissioned till 31/12/2019. The waiver will be available till 25 years of date of commissioning of such projects and on solar projects entering PPAs for sale of electricity to DISCOMs for compliance of RPO. The remaining of the terms and conditions remain the same as the 2016 order.

As per our analysis, this order by the MoP has a number of limitations. First of all, it is only applicable to solar projects from which the electricity will be sold to the DISCOMs. Secondly, it will only be on those solar projects entering PPAs for the compliance of RPO.